


Bedtime Rituals

by poisonedapple



Series: Bardic Inspiration [8]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Campaign 02 (Critical Role), Gen, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-27 04:15:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13872921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poisonedapple/pseuds/poisonedapple
Summary: "Then come join me girl," Beau had said.Because Beau is Jester's roommate and somehow that's one of the most important roles in Jester's life.2x008 and 2x009





	Bedtime Rituals

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place in pieces during Campaign 2, episode 8 and 9.

Lately - and only when her new friends have the luxury of sleeping in a proper bed - when Jester has just fallen to sleep, she dreams about her mother tucking her into bed and Jester feels safe and loved.  When she wakes in the morning, her eyes water as she realizes that she is farther than she has ever been from her mother and the distance from Jester to her mother and everything she has ever known, apart from the Traveler, will only ever grow farther with every step she takes.  And then Beau speaks, or more aptly, mumbles:

 

"Morn'g."

 

And Jester grins, watching Beau stretch and break off with a yawn and swear under her breath.

 

"Good morning Beau!"

 

And just like that, Jester remembers every morning how much wider her world is now - with Fjord and Nott and the rest, and Beau.  Beau who Jester can always expect to wake and have her company, her roommate Beau.  She's never had one before.

 

* * *

 

 

Beau flips Caleb over and throws a blanket over him but otherwise leaves him where he'd passed out on the ground after the bandits had interrupted their sleep.  Jester watches her do it while peeking from the flap at the back of their cart.  Beau gives Nott a quick nod and Jester lets the flap go and hurriedly lays back and pretends that she's asleep just as Beau pulls the flap back again and finally joins the rest of them to try and get a couple more hours of sleep.

 

Beau spreads out where she'd been sleeping before they'd been interrupted but not before pulling Jester's blankets back up for her, from where they'd fallen in Jester's scramble to appear sleeping.

 

After Beau is quiet awhile, Jester dares to open her eyes.  Beau's eyes are shut, but Molly's eyes are open and discerning from where he lays.  Jester smiles at him and he smirks as she shuts her eyes.

 

Molly might say and treat Beau like he doesn't like her, but Jester thinks he might like Beau better than any of them if the affectionate provocation he'd had with his carnival friends said anything.  The two were certainly similar enough.

 

That night, for the first time, Jester does not dream of pranks she might pull or silly and fun things she has done and would like to do - nor does she dream of her mother and the sound of her mother's voice talking with others from a room she's not allowed in.  She dreams of her friends' laughter and she joins her own with their's.

 

In the morning, Beau gives her a weird, scowling look and tells her she was laughing in her sleep.

 

* * *

 

 

From the parchment that Caleb gave her she can only make ten decent pamphlets for the Traveler and of them only two look really good.  She'd kept having to make smaller and smaller pamphlets to make as many as possible and the writing is all crammed together, but she's sure her drawings still get the point across and the Traveler will be pleased.  Jester smiles in triumph as she looks at her work, laying on her belly on her bed with the pamphlets spread out in front of her and lets her check rest upon her bed covers as she looks at them.

 

She wakes to the sound of Beau collecting the pamphlets.

 

"Oh, Beau - No! I want to sleep with them!"

 

Beau only pauses for a moment but she still stacks Jester's work together and sets it on Jester's bedside table.  "You'll crinkle whatever it is, keeping them in bed with you - the way you sleep."

 

Jester frowns for only a moment, as she clambers up and under her covers and her head falls back onto her pillow as she pensively watches Beau shut out the lights and make her way to fall back into the other bed.

 

"Hey, Beau?"

 

"Yeah?"

 

"Can you... Tuck me into bed again tonight?"

 

Jester can't see Beau's face, because her back is turned, but she can see Beau freeze.

 

"I won't ever mention it again, ever, if you do it Beau," Jester beseeches.

 

Beau makes a sound with her teeth and tongue but she turns around and makes her way back to Jester's bed and pulls the covers around Jester.  The last few times, Jester realizes, Beau had tucked her in unconsciously.  This time, Beau is tucking her in with hesitant intention.  This time, though, Beau gives her forehead a quick and gentle peck.

 

"That good?" Beau asks, blind eyes squinting in the dark, as her shoulders meet her ears.  Jester can see her where Beau cannot and she looks embarrassed.

 

"Bed time story?" Jester tries her luck.

 

Beau makes the noise again with her teeth and tongue and quickly turns away and flops onto her bed.

 

"Or a lullaby?"

 

"I'm not your fucking mom, Jester," Beau says - harshly at first but getting softer with every word like she doesn't mean to sound harsh.

 

"I know," Jester says with a beaming smile, sinking deeper into her mattress, "You are my roommate."  And somehow 'roommate' sounds just as important as 'mom.'

 

* * *

 

There are aches in her body and most certainly everyone else's, after they sludge out of the sewers.

 

As the others start to head in the direction of the Leaky Tap, a unanimous decision to get paid in the morning, Jester falls behind.

 

"Hey Beau!" Jester hisses loudly and Beau looks back from where she'd been walking beside Fjord.

 

"Yeah?" Beau asks, retracing her footsteps back to Jester.  "Everything alright?"

 

"Yeah, it's just...  I got a room at the Pillow Trove tonight, so I'm going to stay there.  And then I'll get my package in the morning."

 

"Oh," Beau says looking back at the rest of their friend's backs as they keep walking.  "Alright, yeah."

 

"Will you stay with me, Beau?" Jester asks, biting her bottom lip.

 

"Uuuh," Beau says with indecision as she looks very pointedly at Yasha's back.  Jester isn't stupid - she knows that with Jester out of the picture and the rest of her friends split between three rooms, Beau could easily bunk with Yasha.  But with a low sigh, Beau shrugs, "Yeah, fine.  Alright.  Yeah, girl, yeah, let's go sleep in the lap of luxury and take all their shitty little soaps then?"

 

Beau puts her arm around Jester's shoulders, a comforting weight, as they head down a different street from the rest, Beau flicking them off when Molly notices them going a separate direction.

 

That night, Jester falls asleep to the sound of Beau's throatily humming 'The Ruby of the Sea.'

**Author's Note:**

> Did Marisha Know that her casual "Then come join me girl," and tucking Jester into bed would give me All The Friendship Feels??? Because it did.
> 
> Also stuck this in my Bardic Inspiration series but idk I might make a separate one for Campaign 2.
> 
> Please feel free to leave me kudos and comments :3


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